"Can you see anything?" Lord Carnarvon asked the archaeologist Howard Carter as he shone his searchlight through a hole in the door of the tomb that, until that hour, had been sealed for three thousand years.
"Yes, wonderful things," was Carter's reply and perhaps the understatement of the century. For in the tomb of the boy-king Tutankhamun, lay objects whose beauty was matched only by their rarity and whose rarity only by their richness: objects of gold, silver, ivory, ebony, and alabaster, many set with precious stones, were strewn about in orderly disarray. It took Carter ten years to sort out and catalogue the objects buried with Tutankhamun: richly decorated chests and chairs, finely worked jewelry, elaborate vessels, weapons, and even gaming boards. And, buried with the king were dazzling funerary objects: statues, masks, and the golden coffin itself.
Sometimes, the Egyptian government permits a few of these objects to tour museums abroad. The Treasures of Tutankhamun exhibition drew unprecedented numbers of visitors and excited the interest of many others who lived too far from the museums or who simply could not get in because of the crowds.
Now Masterpieces of Tutankhamun shows the reader in glorious, full-color illustrations, 73 of the most exquisite of the "marvellous things" Howard Carter found. While there are other books on these Egyptian antiquities, only Masterpieces of Tutankhamun shows the reader objects too fragile or too large to be sent abroad by the Egyptian government. This book also shows many of the most beautiful objects in the present Tutankhamun exhibition as well as art objects that were created earlier which portray the life and times of this remarkable king.